The invention describes a method for producing a foil which serves as a carrier for electronic devices and a method for producing a portable data carrier having the foil described above.
The production of portable data carriers is known from the prior art. The portable data carriers consist e.g. of several foil layers, which are permanently connected to each other by a lamination method by means of pressure and heat. Electronic devices, such as e.g. an antenna, are applied, for example, on a foil layer before it is laminated with the other foil layers. Chips are integrated, for example, in a module form into a data carrier, by the module being inserted into a recess of the data carrier and, if necessary, connected with an antenna. A contact-type interface, e.g. according to ISO 7816, is usually located on an outer side of the module.
Further, flexible circuit boards into which electronic devices are integrated are known from the prior art. The flexible circuit boards are constructed from different layers, each layer having different electronic devices disposed therein. There are electroconductive connections between the layers for connecting the devices of the different layers into a suitable circuit.
The disadvantage in the prior art is that the integration of electronic devices, such as e.g. chips, displays, sensors, etc. is very complex, because due to their different overall height the devices must be inserted into gaps and the respective gaps penetrate a different number of foil layers. If a module is to be integrated into the data carrier, a respective recess must be produced in the data carrier. In particular the production of recesses is comparatively expensive and time-consuming.